Document Type : Research

Authors

• Faezeh Salimi
• Vali Rezai

University of Isfahan

Abstract

THE IMPACT OF DISCOURSE-PRAGMATIC FACTORS ON OBJECT OMISSION IN PERSIAN
1. Introduction
Object omission construction is a valency-reduction process in which a transitive verb appears without its object and is used as an intransitive one. However, the addressee is able to understand the meaning of the objectless sentence. The considered type of object omission in this paper is context-independent, in which the referent of the omitted object is not mentioned in previous context and the context does not provide any clue to recover the unspecified object. Among different factors which can affect object omission, in this research we attempt to find out the discourse-pragmatic factors which can facilitate this construction in Persian.
2. Materials and methods
In order to investigate discourse-pragmatic factors which can affect object omission construction, a data set including 435 cases of object omission was discovered and examined. In order to avoid selecting data from a particular speech type or writing style, the cases of object omission were adopted from different sources with different styles such as novels, movies, series and daily conversations. These cases were selected with respect to two criteria. First, the selected verb should be transitive in nature and basically need an object. Second, in order to select the cases of context-independent object omission, it should be noted that whether this construction can occur at the beginning of the discourse. In this way, because the context of conversation is not formed yet, it cannot provide any clues for identifying the referent of the omitted object.
3. Results and discussion
The findings of indicating the impact of discourse-pragmatic factors on object omission in Persian, revealed the importance of some factors. Some of these factors are related to the object, some of them are related to the verb and some are structures which can facilitate object omission. The findings are summed up below:
The features of the object: An object is omissible when it is indefinite, general and unspecific. Cross-linguistically, activity verbs are the most frequent verbs in object omission construction. One reason behind this high frequency is due to the general, unspecific and non-referential object these verbs generally take. An object with these characteristics is not a significant constituent in the sentence and can be omitted.
The features of the verb: Actions with [-telic] feature do not have an end point and are not completely done. Therefore, the object is not entirely affected by the verb and the focus is on the action itself. This point shifts attention away from the object. In this way, the object cannot be a focusable constituent in the sentence and is not highly individuated, hence, it can be omitted. Another point is that, because of the collocation, some words co-occur more often. Because of the collocation of a verb with an object, the object becomes the prototypical complement of the verb; and this prototypical object is recoverable from the objectless sentence. In this way, the verb conveys the meaning of the object as well and object can be deleted. Accordingly, it can be concluded that a verb can omit its object 1) when it is more emphasized than the object and the focus is on the verb itself and 2) when the existence of a prototypical object is conceivable for a verb.
The features of structural omission: Some structures which can facilitate object omission are including fixed phrases, linking or sequential phrases and instructional imperatives which are mostly [-telic]. The interesting fact about structural omission is that it seems to dominate other relevant factors. That is, if a verb naturally does not allow object omission, in a structural context, it will omit its object.
The features of the interlocutors: among people who belong to a certain group with specific goals, the possibility of object omission will be increased. Because they have common knowledge of the world, common presuppositions and common cultural backgrounds. Hence, they are able to understand the meaning of an objectless sentence.
4. Conclusion
Investigating the impact of discourse-pragmatic factors on object omission in Persian, revealed the importance of some factors. Some of these factors are related to the object, some of them are related to the verb and some are structures which can facilitate object omission.Although investigating object omission based on the discourse-pragmatic factors enlightens many facts about this construction in Persian, but syntactic, semantic and typological factors can also affect this construction. Accordingly, object omission cannot be considered as a discourse-pragmatic phenomenon. Hence, in order to gain a broader view and providing accurate rules for this construction, investigating the impact of semantic, syntactic and typological factors on object omission is inevitable.

Keywords

• Object omission؛ Structural omission؛ Valency-reduction
• Pragmatics